Friday, December 26, 2008

Christmas Day

8:30am Tobi comes in and wakes me up to let me know Santa came!!! Her face was so cute. I told her to go get in the bath and we would get dressed and open presents. She said let's open presents first then take a bath. I finally convinced her that we should get dressed first and then open presents that way they could open their presents and keep playing instead of having to stop and get dressed.
Bryan woke up kind of grumpy and not feeling well so when I went downstairs to finish cleaning and start getting stuff ready we started butting heads. Since that was not the kind of Christmas I wanted for the girls I sent him upstairs to take a bath so he would relax and let the medicine kick in. Since the girls were now going to have to wait to open things a little longer, we let them open one gift and turned on a Christmas movie for them.
Then I started cooking. I made the dough for the homemade rolls and while it was rising I vacuumed the house and mopped the floors. I dusted downstairs and cleaned the bathroom. Then put the ham in to roast and washed the dishes.
Then we finally opened presents!!!! (You can see in the photos how much Bryan and I are affected by our sinus problems - our faces are so swollen and our noses are red and raw. And poor Tobi is so pale because she is sick too - awww!)


At 12:00pm Amber and Anton showed up. I didn't think they would be there until close to 1pm but that's okay - I was running right on schedule and really quickly threw together the few appetizers I had. The kids danced to the "Snoopy Christmas" show we had on. Then Grandma and Grandpa showed up and the kids helped to move their big presents in to the living room. The boxes were bigger than they were.

Instead of doing a huge spread I kept the meal simple:
-Roasted ham with a cognac & brown sugar glaze
-Red potatoes with butter and parsley
-Vegetable casserole - Awesome!!!
-Homemade Parker house rolls - yummy
-Buche de Noel cake - cute!!

After dinner and before dessert we moved into the living room to open gifts.
During Thanksgiving I decided I wanted to read a book about the holiday to the kids and I continued this new tradition with Christmas - reading the story of Jesus' birth. I did this before they opened presents to help remember the focus of the holiday - plus, they love books! We also played the White Elephant ornament game my Mom came up with. We all drew numbers and chose an unmarked box and that was the ornament gift we got. We decided earlier in the fall that adults would not get gifts - just kids - but we would do this game.
Then the kids got to open their big gifts from Grandma and Grandpa. It was hysterical because the boxes were way bigger than the kids were!!!!

When they finally opened the box - this is what they saw:

So the kids opened the little boxes - they were very confused but loved it!

This is what was in the next box??? But what does a key do?

I don't know, but I can fit inside my big box!!!

Then they figured it out and here were their real gifts:

We had a great time outside teaching the kiddos how to not hit us or the cars!

Afterwards, we said goodbye and everyone went home. It was a very blessed Christmas Day!

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